Sond raises $7M seed to launch Dreambuds AI sleep earbuds
What's the deal? SONDDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, a Boston-based startup founded by BoseDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →'s former head of global sleep products, emerged from stealth on Wednesday with $7 million in funding and a debut product called Dreambuds — in-ear devices that monitor 12 physiological signals and use AI to actively improve the wearer's sleep.
The round was backed by E14 FundDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → (an MIT-affiliated fund), Crosslink Capital, Ubiquity VenturesDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, Alumni Ventures, Meach Cove CapitalDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, and Boston ScientificDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → co-founder John Abele.
CEO Yadid Ayzenberg co-founded SOND in February 2022 with CTO Amir Lazarovich, a former senior software engineering manager at Google. The two met at MIT — where Ayzenberg lent Lazarovich a spare mattress, sparking a friendship that would last 14 years.
Unlike traditional sleep earbuds that simply mask noise, Dreambuds track respiration, heart rate variability, sleep staging, body position, snoring, and seismocardiography, among other signals. That data streams to a cloud-based AI sleep coach that selects or generates audio programmes tailored to the individual user, learning what works over time.
The system runs without a phone. The charging case includes Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, an OLED display, physical buttons, and a speaker.
Why now? When Bose strategically exited the sleep wearables business, Ayzenberg saw his opening. At Bose, he had launched Sleepbuds 2 and run the company's sleep product portfolio — but customers consistently wanted more than noise cancellation. They wanted sensors and personalised sleep improvement.
"I had spent a significant amount of time around physiology, around sensors, around audio… I was meant to do this," Ayzenberg told TechCrunch .
Back when Sleepbuds 2 launched, the technology wasn't ready to pack many sensors into a small form factor without killing the battery. By the time Bose pulled out of sleep wearables, that constraint had eased — making SOND's approach feasible.
What could go wrong? Sleep tech is a crowded space. Competitor Ozlo already makes sleep earbuds, and Ayzenberg himself acknowledged that Ozlo's product is closer to what a hypothetical Bose Sleepbuds III would have been. SOND will need to convince consumers that its closed-loop, AI-driven approach is meaningfully different from simpler alternatives.
Relying on cloud-based AI also introduces latency and privacy questions. Users speaking to an AI coach while in bed may have reservations about where that data goes — and any connectivity hiccup could undermine the real-time feedback loop that is the product's core selling point.
The signal: The investor mix here — Ubiquity Ventures, which focuses specifically on "software beyond the screen" hardware-software plays, alongside MIT-affiliated E14 Fund and medtech pioneer John Abele — suggests smart money sees closed-loop physiological intervention, not passive tracking, as the next frontier in consumer health wearables. SOND's early growth positioning also hints that the founders used their three-plus years in stealth to move beyond pure R&D, likely arriving at market with clinical or user data that simpler sleep earbud competitors lack.
Read more: TechCrunch
